The Imperfect Community

[julymom]

Okay, these are fairly trivial things, but they irk me and I'd like to get them off my chest.

Why is it so freaking hard to find regular cream cheese in the grocery store? There are about 50 different types of cream cheese: whipped, lowfat, blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, salmon, blah, blah, blah. All I want is plain regular fat in cream cheese. Is that too much to ask?

Why is it that most restaurants now only have light versions of things, like cheese (cream, cottage or otherwise), sour cream and many salad dressings? I do not eat anything lowfat, because it's disgusting. Low/no fat sour cream is a crime against nature and should be banned from existance. Ditto low/no fat salad dressings. Blech, blech, blech! They are gross and leave a slick feeling on the roof of my mouth. Yeah, I get that a lot of people are trying to make "healthier" choices (though I'm not convinced they are healthier) and choose the light versions, but what about those of us who are not on a light kick? Why are we forced to eat this junk? Some places offer both regular and light versions, but many places have just gone over to the light side and only offer that. Honestly, if low/no fat business really worked, wouldn't everyone be thin? It pisses me off that I take care of myself and choose to eat the full fat versions of dairy products and dressings, but am often forced to forgo foods that I would like to eat because restaurants only offer chemically enhanced versons.

So there you go. My food bitches for the day.

[Petulant Pixie]

I haven't seen that in my neck of the woods.

I do the low fat on some things (frozen yogurt is as good as ice cream, the low fat mayo is just fine to me) and others I will not (low fat cheddar cheese or cottage cheese). I'm eating this Marie's light Blue Cheese dressing these days that is awesome. I don't know if it's "healthier" than regular blue cheese, but it's like half the calories.

[prescott]

Since I do all the grocery shopping and cooking, I guess I'm the "food bitch" in our house.

[Anthromomma]

Well, I actually like 1/3 less fat cream cheese, but that's because it's not actually cream cheese at all, it's neufchatel, and that's what I grew up eating. Trader Joe's, I know for sure only sells regular cream cheese, because if I want some of the other I have to stop somewhere else. But I get what you're saying. I hate how words like 'healthy' and 'whole grain' have been turned into meaningless buzzwords, and it drives me batty that sometimes "no sugar added" means they dumped in Splenda instead. Who needs sweetened applesauce anyway? Apples are already sweet, dammit! I'm not really into dairy (except cheese), but personally I would much rather eat a small serving of the real deal occassionally than a bigger serving of something low fat or low calorie (but full of emulsifiers and sweeteners and who knows what else) more often. And this is a little off topic, but I just recently had Miracle Whip for the first time in my life, and WTF is that stuff? Frankenmayo? Why is it so sweet?

[Petulant Pixie]

Ugh, God, Miracle Whip is nasty. I don't know what the hell it is.

I am a mayo addict though. I love fries dipped in mayo, and my favorite sandwich is a slice of toasted Oatnut bread, cheddar cheese, mayo and some thick slices of tomato on top, open-faced. So, with my mayo content, it makes sense for me (trying to keep weight under control) to compromise with the fat-free stuff when I'm being slovenly and using it with fries or something.

I haven't seen them overtaking restaurants though. Maybe where we eat, people just demand their fat and calories.

[peglegginmegan]

I whole-heartedly agree with the low-fat dressing and cream cheese stance. It's disgusting.

Here is my personal gross food aversion: ready to eat bacon and frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and those apples that are already cut and bagged for snacks. That bacon sits in boxes in the aisle, without being refrigerated! That just brings it to the same level as spam. On my last trip to the store I noticed that now there are frozen "grilled cheese sandwiches" that you just heat up in the microwave. I'm the first person to applaud something that makes my life easier, but this has gone a little too far. And how hard is it to just slice up an apple or slap some peanut butter and jelly on bread?

[Scout]

PP I could not even read your post after I saw "mayo addict" and "dip" because I'm such a mayo-phobe! LOL! It truly is a phobia. I cannot even contemplate that something like tuna salad is supposed to be food. Only in the past few years have I even been able to try dips that have a small amount of mayo in them.

JM, they don't do that here! I'm glad. But I have to say, even though I hate the low fat and fat free versions of almost everything, I think the sour cream is not bad. In general I do not eat fake food, though. Splenda makes me barf! I can't stand any artificial sweeteners.

We are supposed to be getting a Trader Joe's here! Woo Hoo! I'm so freaking excited!!

[Anthromomma]

I love Trader Joe's. I do almost all of my grocery shopping there and at the farmers market. I don't know how we could afford to eat if we lived somewhere without one.

PP, I have a recipe for you (look away, Scout! ) It's a lot like the sandwich you described and this is the time of year to make it, with fresh tomatoes everywhere:

Dottie Kuster’s Tomato Pie

(6-8 servings)

1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and thickly sliced (remove most of the liquid and seeds)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated, sharp cheddar cheese

Bake pie crust at 425 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 400 degrees. Cover the bottom of pie crust with tomato slices, sprinkle with salt, pepper, basil and chives. Thoroughly combine the mayonnaise and cheese. Carefully spread this mixture evenly over the tomato slices, making sure to seal the edges of the pie crust completely. Bake for 35 minutes.

[Jessica]

I'm okay with some low-fat stuff, but no-fat stuff just loses all it's flavor.

I like mayo, but it has to be Helman's. For some reason, Helman's mayo is like no other. It's so buttery and yummy.

I love pasta tuna salad too.

Low-fat salad dressing, I can do with some of 'em, but it just can't be no-fat. No-fat cheese is also narly (but not in a good way).

Fat makes you fat though. There's no way around it. You sacrifice taste or you sacrafice your figure it seems, unless you workout a lot.

[Petulant Pixie]

The cooked tomatoes in the recipe entice, Antrho, but the cooked mayo does not. I do have an issue with cooked mayo. It changes the texture and the taste.

I have to have Hellman's too. Kraft doesn't have the same texture. I have always liked mayo, but my trip to France really sealed it (there I discovered I wasn't odd for dipping my fries in mayo--just French!). They serve the good, homemade kind of mayo in restaurants there, though.

I love tuna salad. I make mine with mayo (duh!), but see in something like tuna salad, you can get away with the fat-free stuff because the tuna flavor overwhelms the mayo flavor anyway. Not that it really matters the way I do it. I make it with mayo and chopped onions. Then I use two slices of grainy bread, butter them lightly and cook them in a fry pan (like you would for grilled cheese. When both sides are browned, I let some cheddar melt on one of the slices of toast and pile the tuna on the other. Put a few slices of tomato on top of the tuna, plop the melted cheese toast piece on top and voila. It's buttery and tomatoey and cheesy and tuna-y. It's soooooo good. And the fat free mayo will deduct about 20 calories so it's only 999,980 calories instead of the actual million.

[julymom]

I do shop at Trader Joe's (Antrho, I wonder if we've ever seen each other and not realized it?) but the last time I was there they were out of regular cream cheese (WTF?), and they don't carry the bread I like, so I ran into Wal-Mart to pick some up. I was overwhelmed with cream cheese choices, but had a hard time finding regular. It's so annoying. You know I never thought to use neufchatel though. I"ll have to try it. I'm actually heading to TJ's today.

Meg, I wholeheartedly agree about the prepared pb&j, grilled cheese and other 'ready' foods. GROSS!
I also have a huge fear of artificial sweeteners AND mayo. I hate them both with the passion of a thousand nuns.

Fat makes you fat though. There's no way around it. You sacrifice taste or you sacrafice your figure it seems, unless you workout a lot.

I could argue this all day. If you go to Europe, you will NOT find low fat anything in the stores or restaurants, and there are lots and lots of skinny folks over there. They eat smaller portions of things. Full fat products fill you up more quickly and stay with you longer than the low/no fat versions, so you eat less. Also, if the low/no fat versions are atually better for you fat/calorie wise, wouldn't we all be thin by now?

As for restaurants, it's mostly chain ones (both fast food and sit down) that have gone over to the light side. The smaller, family owned ones (which I prefer) haven't, so I try to go to those. I needed lunch the other day and for whatever reason really wanted a baked potato so I stopped at Wendy's and all they have now is no fat sour cream. Blech. I skipped the potato because I refuse to eat that crap.

[mammaX3_MOD]

Jessica, I love Helman's. They don't have it on the west coast here. In fact, there are a LOT of foods they don't have here that I miss about the East coast. Anytime a family member visits New York, they pack an extra empty suitcase with a "wish list" of foods to bring home for the rest of us.

Everyone out here raves about Krispy Kreme Donuts, but I think they're just "Eh, OK I guess". Now Dunkin' Donuts is another story. Maybe for me it's a good thing the closest one is over 50 miles away. The powdered ones with the vanilla frosting in the middle (insert the homer simpson drool, here) are amazing! Anytime someone needs a ride to the airport, I happily volunteer, so as to veer an extra 11 miles off course to the shady neighborhood of Des Moins that has the only Dunkin' Donuts.

I'm not big on the fat-free dressings, either. I grabbed a fat-free Ranch one day by accident, and thought "what the hell, I'll give it a try". It was so gross. It left a nasty film on the roof of my mouth!

Seattle is trying to pass a law that all restaurants will be required to post all of the nutritional content of any food they cook to be viewable to the public. The owners are trying to fight it because they feel it will cause a drop in business. I'm more in the "I don't want to know" Dept. I don't want to know if there's rat hair in my bacon cheeseburger, and I don't want to know that it has 1,200 calories. . Usually I'm not deterred by nutritional facts, but just recently, DH had a job going on at the HQ for Darigold. There was a chilled basket sitting out for employees to have a free "Milkshake" (it comes in a Darigold plastic bottle, and you can buy it at any grocery store). Well we were at Fred Meyer and he saw it in the dairy Dept, so he bought it. "You've gotta try the vanilla. It's so good." Well I did, and I thought "Man, this is way too sweet for me". When I looked at the label, it was 38 grams of sugar per serving, and after doing the math it turned out to be 95 grams for the whole bottle (like 12 oz)!!!!! I couldn't even take another sip. Like I said, I'd just rather not know!

Julymom: Maybe the reason all of the 'regular' cream cheeses were sold out was because all of the 'whole fat'-lovers out there grabbed them before you got there . Yeah, I gotta agree, non-fat is the devil!

[Anthromomma]

Antrho, I wonder if we've ever seen each other and not realized it?

If you go to the one in Brentwood Promenade then probably-- it feels like I'm in there all the time. I was there this afternoon, as a matter of fact. If you've ever seen someone and thought, "why on earth is that woman trying to shop in this store with three small children," that was probably me.

[becky2005]

Jessica, I love Helman's. They don't have it on the west coast here.

mammaX3, I used to live in Cali and Hellmann's is definitely sold there just under a different name. It is marketed as Best Foods mayo in California. Go get you some!

[mammaX3_MOD]

mammaX3, I used to live in Cali and Hellmann's is definitely sold there just under a different name. It is marketed as Best Foods mayo in California. Go get you some!

Yeah, we've got Best Foods. And I do like it, but there's something familiar about the name that I miss, I guess. I know, I'm a weirdo!